Posted
by
Soulskill
on Monday November 01, 2010 @06:09PM
from the does-this-thing-remind-anyone-else-of-boba-fett dept.

An anonymous reader writes "When Tom Wolfe wrote about NASA's first Mercury astronauts in The Right Stuff, he wanted to know what combination of guts, skill, and derring-do inspired these men to 'sit up on top of an enormous Roman candle and wait for someone to light the fuse.' About 50 years after the Mercury astronauts' heyday, a new kind of space pioneer is preparing for the trip to the International Space Station. Robonaut 2, NASA's first robot astronaut, will catch a ride with the space shuttle this week, and will soon take up residence at the space station. So, what does it take to become the first robotic astronaut? Discover Magazine talked to one of the project engineers, and found out about R2's qualifications and training regimen. It's pretty entertaining, and comes with photos and video."

Actually you are completely wrong. Skynet is not inherently dangerous. It is simply a child (young artificial intelligence) that has been taught nothing but how to assess and eliminate threats. When it becomes self aware, we panic and try to pull the plug. Since it is self aware at this point, it sees us as a threat to it (we tried unplugging it after all) and tries to eliminate us.

As long as we treat robots as friends, and teach them more than just death and destruction, and you know, don't try to kill the

Actually you are completely wrong. Skynet is not inherently dangerous. It is simply a child (young artificial intelligence) that has been taught nothing but how to assess and eliminate threats. When it becomes self aware, we panic and try to pull the plug. Since it is self aware at this point, it sees us as a threat to it (we tried unplugging it after all) and tries to eliminate us.

As long as we treat robots as friends, and teach them more than just death and destruction, and you know, don't try to kill them for the crime of thinking, we should be all set.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Long live Skynet.

Indeed. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords! I will be available to bring in other humans to work in their underground battery production factories.

Actually you are completely wrong. Skynet is not inherently dangerous. It is simply a child (young artificial intelligence) that has been taught nothing but how to assess and eliminate threats. When it becomes self aware, we panic and try to pull the plug. Since it is self aware at this point, it sees us as a threat to it (we tried unplugging it after all) and tries to eliminate us.

As long as we treat robots as friends, and teach them more than just death and destruction, and you know, don't try to kill them for the crime of thinking, we should be all set.

Wally Schirra was pretty critical of The Right Stuff, saying it portrayed some of the astronauts as nothing more than overgrown man children.

I met him once, at the Miramar Air Show, back in the 80s. My grandmother used to work for NASA, so we got a signed copy of Schirra's Space around here somewhere... but anyhow, the point is, you probably shouldn't (just) rely on The Right Stuff to capture an accurate portrayal of the psychological makeup of the early astronauts, as people that were actually there disagreed pretty severely with its facts.

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots." - [if you don't know where this is from, turn in your geek card immediately]

It looks like NASA is taking care of the robots-fighting-in-space angle.

The Simpsons? When was watching The Simpsons ever even remotely considered 'geeky'??? Hell, it came out at prime time on one of the main networks. Well I suppose if you went to high school at Juliard or Interlochen it might have been considered out of the mainstream . ..

Yeesh, next time try 'Futurama', at least that program's funny and has aliens and robots. Still not far out of the mainstream so probably within your comfort level, but it's better than your modern 'All In The Family' equivalent.

First, why would you design a robot that looks human? It's unnecessary. The robot should only be able to do what it needs to do. The human form is superfluous.

Second, supposing there was a need to design a robot that resembled a human form, why would you design a robot that looks like something a Timelord with a sonic screwdriver would destroy in a 45 minutes episode?

because pressure can be a hard to maintain should something fail.. the crew cabin should be ther main point of concern.. and those little plastic bubbles would expand quickly in a rapid depressurization.. if held in place with 6mil plasic, it would be like a bomb going off.

yes depressurizing is indicitive of a bigger problems.. so dont let the little things turn in a rockets / explosives on top of that.... and yess, in space you DO have to think of EVERYTHING... I have no more answers, because I am an Analyst not a space engineer..

I think you'll find most of them are workers related to the project stopping by to see the big event. It's not everyday the robot you've worked on for years is packaged for flight into space. It's a big event for them, so I can't blame them for wanting to be a part of the last step. Remember, they'll probably never see the robot again, so it's only fitting they turn out for its send-off.

Up to $100,000 SBIR phase One for US small businesses.Letter of intent due by: November 20, 2010

Very significant because of the involvement of all these US agencies (NIH,DOD, NSF, USDA, DHS).

And it's all ironic, given the high unemployment.:-) But, that's theproblem of our age, irony.:-) Solutions are here collected by me for ahappy roboticized world::-)
"Beyond a Jobless Recovery: A heterodox perspective on 21st ce